The Sussexes are unlikely to travel back to the United Kingdom together in the near future after Prince Harry claimed he has ‘genuine concerns’ about his wife’s safety in the country.
Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, completed their exodus from the UK in 2020 after stepping down as senior working royals .
Swapping Frogmore Cottage for the ‘sleepy little town’ of Montecito, California - home of Rob Lowe, Oprah Winfrey, and Gwyneth Paltrow - the pair are kept busy Stateside, raising their two children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
After leaving England five years ago, Meghan, 44, now runs her own lifestyle business from the state, which also served as the setting for her smash-hit Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
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Meanwhile, Harry, 40, continues to work on the Invictus Games, often travels abroad for engagements, and released his bombshell autobiography Spare in January 2023, and it’s been made clear that they are there to stay in California.
Last year, the Prince took part in the ITV documentary Tabloids on Trial, where he explained why he’s hesitant to bring Meghan back to his home.
During the investigative programme, which documented how he and other celebrities had become victims of newspapers’ ‘unlawful tactics’, Harry said the way the media has covered Meghan has caused him ‘genuine concern’.
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“All it takes is for one lone actor who reads this stuff to act on what they've read,” he confessed.
“And whether it's a knife or acid, these are things that are genuine concerns for me. It's one of the reasons why I won't bring my wife back to this country.”
Earlier this year, the High Court informed the Duke that a 2020 decision made by Ravec, the body responsible for the security of high-level figures, to downgrade his high-level police protection for when he is back in the country, would be upheld.
Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos handed down the legal ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice in May.
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At the time, the judge said that although the royal’s safety concerns were both ‘powerful and moving’, his ‘sense of grievance’ did not ‘translate into a legal argument’, as per Sky News.
Harry, who was challenging the decision of High Court judge Sir Peter Lane made in February 2024, where he ruled that Ravec was right to downgrade his security, issued a statement afterwards
He claimed the UK was still his ‘home’, despite not living there for half a decade.
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"The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home, as much as where they live at the moment in the United States,” he said.
“That cannot happen if it's not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.
“I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm's way too.”
Topics: Royal Family, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, UK News
Ella Scott